Tag Archives: macadmins

Reset Printer Queue

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TIL (thing I learned)

Had a user upgrade to macOS 10.14.1 and no printers showed up anymore.

So using my Google fu I found some posts (see one below) which described a novel way to reset the print queue on macOS. An old trick apparently. Learn something new everyday.

A quick trip to a terminal and it worked! The existing printers returned to System Preferences and printing resumed.

$ cancel -a

Reference

Hello macOS Sierra, bye bye El Cap

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We welcome the beautiful and wonderful macOS Sierra (10.12) and say good bye to the old and weary El Capitan (OS X 10.11.6)…. Wait, not so fast. Slow it down. Just a tad bit.

While Watchman is alerting me to users downloading, then installing the newest Apple macOS (née OS X, Mac OS X), we must be ready. Ready to troubleshoot issues with apps that developers haven’t tested thoroughly for a new OS that appears to be the same, but changes everything under the hood.

How do we test? In a VM of course.

What do we need:

  1. VMWare Fusion
  2. Greg et. al. createOSXinstallPkg
  3. Rich Trouton’s disable setup assistant payload free packages
  4. Mager Valp’s Create User Pkg
  5. Greg et. al. Munki (latest release)
  6. add your own packages, such as a munki kicksart (set repo url, client identifier, etc)
  7. UPDATE: we can’t forget Rich Trouton’s First Boot Generator App

What are we doing?

createOSXinstallPkg was created to turn Apple’s App Store Install macOS Sierra.app or previous Install OS X versions into nice Apple installer packages to upgrade in place using Munki (or other deployment tools). The new trick added recently is to create a new Fake Install.app with our packages to use install in VMWare Fusion instead of on a real Mac.

UPDATED STEPS! Note: I’d forgotten about First Boot Generator

  1. Download your installer app of choice (Install macOS sierra)
  2. Download createOSX installer
  3. Prepare your custom packages, or gathers ones your want to add to the installer
  4. Organize your installers into folders like this: 00, 01, 02, etc
  5. Launch First Boot Generator App and transmogrify that folders of packages
  6. Run createOSX installer with the fake app option if you want to test a VM, or without if you want to build a package
  7. Run createOSX as many times as you want with different OS X installers, and the same first boot package. Test diff OS installers with your customer PKGs.

Note: use the “–make-fake-app” option to prep for VMWare Fusion, omit it for a pkg

Note2: Here’s some examples using createOSXinstallPkg and various OSX installers

createOSXinstallPkg sudo ./createOSXinstallPkg --source /Volumes/SSD/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --make-fake-app --pkg ~/bin/PKG_BUILD/FirstBoot_staging/First\ Boot\ Package\ Install.pkg --output /Volumes/Updates/Builds

createOSXinstallPkg sudo ./createOSXinstallPkg --source /Volumes/Updates/Builds/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --pkg ~/bin/PKG_BUILD/FirstBoot_staging/First\ Boot\ Package\ Install.pkg --output /Volumes/Updates/Builds

 

firstbootgeneratorapp

firstbootpackages

Note: If you get a message that your custom pkg you want to add is not a Flat package then use productbuild to repackage it.

Example:

➜  productbuild –package SetMunkiRepo.pkg SetMunkiRepo_flat.pkg

 

Reference: See Greg’s post on Managing OS X for more info make VMWare images using this method. And also Rich Trouton’s Der Flounder blog post on First Book Generator App

 

 

Mac IT training

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I’ve been asked about Mac IT sysadmin training ideas, and I thought perhaps sharing some initial ideas might help other aspiring Mac IT sysadmins.

It’s hard to recommend a training site or specific place for Mac IT training these days. It used to be that you could sign up for a Unix SysAdmin or bash scripting class and that would be most helpful. And those both are helpful but Mac IT specific technologies are discussed at Mac IT conferences such as MacTech in LA (and periodically in other cities), PSU Mac Admins (Penn State), MacIT (San Jose), MacSysAdmin in Sweden, MacDeploy in Calgary and MacDevOps:YVR in Vancouver. As well as Apple sponsored camps for ACNs (Apple Consultants). Some of these conferences post their video online for free (PSU, MacSysAdmin and MacDevOps) so these are great resources to learn from.

Online learning: there are resources such as mail lists which have lots of helpful Mac Admins: mac-enterprise (MACENTERPRISE@LISTS.PSU.EDU), munki-dev (munki-dev@googlegroups.com), munki-discussion (munki-discussion@googlegroups.com), autopkg (autopkg-discuss@googlegroups.com) and the Slack MacAdmins channel (http://macadmins.org) and perhaps lots of other places I’m forgetting.

The most important is local meetups, and right now we’re not hosting anything in Vancouver. But I do want to start some local meetups here to encourage fellow Mac Admins to help each other out learning MacDevOps skills and getting into the greater Mac IT sysadmin community. There are great meetups in many cities across North America and the world. Finding out where they are means looking at afp548.com for info, or check out Watchman Monitoring’s new Mac Meetup site: http://www.macmeetups.com/find/, or check on Jamf Nation (https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/index.html). Lots of options.
Here in Vancouver we are also contemplating some more in depth workshops for the next MacDevOps:YVR conference and perhaps sooner than that. How to get started with Mac IT technologies and how to build a beautiful Mac Admins community by being a part of it, and sharing what you know with others.
Anything you all want to learn specifically? What do you want to know about? Let me know.

Munki: Part 3 aka Setting up MunkiReport-PHP to monitor your Munki Setup

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This is Part 3 in our series on getting started with Munki. Part 1 covered the basic installation of Munki and the elusive Part 2 covers using Munki Admin and Munki’s Managed Software Centre. Part 3 covers the after you’ve setup Munki, now what part of the deployment. Munki is installed. Software is downloaded via AutoPkg and manifest contain catalog and clients have manifests. But is it working? Do all the Macs have the latest Flash plugin? Do they really? We will cover basic setup of MunkiReport-PHP to show  easy it can be to get going.

 Step 1. Download munkireport-php, download ZIP
Note: It’s a good idea to read through the setup notes on the site
Step 2. Rename folder to “report”
Rename the the expanded folder to whatever you like, I shorten it to “report”
Step 3. Drop in Munki_repo folder
To get started quickly drop this folder into your munki repo site folder (which is presumably accessible via the web for client access to Munki).
rename the munkireport folder

rename the munkireport folder

Step 4. Change perms of app/db folder
Your set up will fail is the app/db folder is not accessible. Make it writable.
Note: Do not make your site accessible to the outside Internet if you’re not confident in your security model. This is for inside your LAN testing. Be careful and mindful of security concerns. ‘Nough said
MunkiReport app-db-sqlite

MunkiReport app-db-sqlite

If you get this error you haven’t changed the permissions it requires.

Error

MunkiReport errors

Step 5. Rename default_config to config.php
rename the default config php file

rename the default config php file

Step 6. Enable php for apache
Enable PHP in Apache or other web server service you’re using. Example below is using Server.app
Enable PHP server.app

Enable PHP server.app

Step 7. Create user (and hash)
Load up your MunkiReport-PHP site and create a user and hash.
Step 8. Add hash to config.php
hash-crop
Step 9. Download MunkiReport.plist using curl
Download MunkiReport.plist using curl. Note: use an IP address accessible to your Munki clients, i.e. not ‘localhost’
curl
Step 10. Add MunkiReport.plist to pkgsinfo
Add MunkiReport.plist to pkgsinfo
MunkiReport pkgsinfo

MunkiReport pkgsinfo

Step 11. Import in munki repo
Use munkiimport or MunkiAdmin to import your MunkiReport.plist to Munki
Step 12. Add to client manifest
Add MunkiReport.plist to client manifest using Munki Admin or Munki cli tools
MunkiReport plist installs in MunkiAdmin

MunkiReport plist installs in MunkiAdmin

Step 13. Add apps to monitor in config.php
Use the apps_to_track model. See also Rsaeks blog post.
MunkiReport apps to track

MunkiReport apps to track

Step 14. Login and check your App Versions report
MunkiReport app versions

MunkiReport app versions

Step 15. Explore Munki Report

MunkiReport-Dashboard

MunkiReport-Dashboard

MacDevOps:YVR

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Date: June 19, 2015

http://www.macdevops.ca/

A new kind of conference for Mac IT professionals looking to get into DevOps. You’ll hear some about new automation tools, and get a chance to try new things in the computer lab. Join us! Registration limited to 75.

The cost is $99. Food is included on the day of the conference including a light breakfast and lunch. Register here.

Call for Submissions!

MacDevOpsYVR is seeking presenters from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond to participate in this one-day conference for all things Mac!

If you have an idea for a specific talk, workshop or panel related to deploying Macs in enterprise, corporate or educational environments, we want to hear from you.

> SUBMIT A PROPOSAL <

Deadline for Submissions: March 31, 2015.

Share your experience and join your peers at this one day, all day conference in beautiful Vancouver, BC.

Topics of Interest:

  • Puppet, Chef and other automation from Desktop to Cloud and back
  • Software deployment with Munki and AutoPkg: the app ecosystem surrounding it
  • Cool tools: demo of awesome Mac Admin projects from GitHub
  • DevOps: How to adopt Automation and Best practices in IT operations
  • Dev skills: workshops on Ruby, Git, Python, Javascript for Mac Admins
  • MDM: Profiles and Mac configuration management in the cloud